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Background: To better understand the intricate science of reading development, both cognitive and affective factors must be taken into consideration. This developmental study aims to enrich the literature by exploring how reading motivation – an affective factor – contributes to reading comprehension in Chinese elementary schoolers, beyond well‐accepted cognitive‐based reading skills, such as decoding and vocabulary. Methods: We used a cross‐sectional design with 420 native Mandarin‐Chinese‐speaking students (Grade 2: N = 95; Grade 3: N = 216; Grade 4: N = 109), with age‐appropriate materials to measure their decoding skills, vocabulary knowledge, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Three sets of hierarchical regression analyses were run for the three grade samples to examine the unique contributions of reading motivation to reading comprehension while controlling children's demographic profiles, such as age and gender, and two cognitive‐based reading skills. Results: We replicated previous findings: children's decoding and vocabulary are robust predictors of reading achievement across Grades 2 to 4. Importantly, reading motivation contributed uniquely to reading comprehension in all three grades and explained an increasing amount of the variances in reading comprehension from Grades 2 to 4. Intrinsic reading motivation was critical in Grade 3, while extrinsic reading motivation became important in Grade 4. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings reveal the complexity of reading development and advance the existing cognitive‐based reading theories by including affective dimensions. Highlights: What is already known about this topic Reading motivation may explain primary schoolers' reading outcomes across languages, including Chinese.The link between reading motivation and reading outcomes may vary across different grades.The roles of intrinsic versus extrinsic reading motivation in reading outcomes may differ. What this paper adds Reading motivation uniquely contributed to reading comprehension beyond decoding and vocabulary skills.The unique variances in reading comprehension explained by reading motivation increased from Grades 2 to 4.Intrinsic reading motivation was critical in Grade 3, whereas extrinsic reading motivation became important in Grade 4. Implications for theory, policy or practice It is crucial to consider reading motivation in supporting children's reading development.Children's reading motivation and its contribution to reading development may vary across grades.There appears to be a shift from intrinsic to extrinsic reading motivation in explaining Chinese reading comprehension from Grades 3 to 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]